Registering mechanism.



No. 718,104. PATBNTED JAN. 13, 1903.

W. L. DIXON.

REGISTERING MECHANISM.

APPLICATION TILED-MAR. 5, 1902.

I0 MODEL.

Unrrnn STATES PATENT OFFICE.

\VALTER L. DIXON, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO THEREEOE FOLDING MACHINE COMPANY, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPO- RATION OF MAINE.

REGISTERING MECHANISM.

PECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 718,104, dated January 13, 1903.

Application filed March 6. 1902. Serial No. 96,765. (No model.)

To to whom, it may concern:

Be it known that l, WALTER L. DIXON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Registering Mechanism, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like characters on the drawings representing like parts.

In many machines wherein it is necessary to keep a register of the number of cycles of movement of the machine for royalties or other purposes it is customary to employ a registering mechanism contained in a frame sustained by the machine being operated, and a gear connected with said registering mechanism moves the same whenever the machine is being operated. These registering mechzo anisins sometimes are in the way of other parts, and in my efforts to provide a most compact registering mechanism I have devised a registering mechanism which may be contained in any wheel of a machine, and said registering mechanism will register each rotation of said wheel, and consequently the shaft carrying said wheel. My novel registering mechanism is actuated continuously whenever the Wheel is moved forwardly, and go the driving means consists of an overbalanced weight having a pawl or device that engages a tooth or shoulder of the frame or front wheel of the series of wheels used in the registering mechanism to indicate tens, hundreds, thousands, (to.

Figure 1, in elevation, shows one side of a wheel provided with my registering mechanism. Fig. 2 is a view of the registering mechanism removed from the wheel. Fig. 3 is an edge view of the registering mechanism shown.

in Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a detail showing the overbalanced weight and its pawl and the part engaged by the pawl. Fig. 5 is a sectional detail in the line :0, Fig. 2; and Fig. 6 is a 5 section in the line 00', Fig. l.

A is a gear-wheel formed with a curved cavity or recess A and window-openings A and A My registering mechanism is fitted into the cavity or recess A and presents two plates a and a, each having suitable hearings to sustain the ends of a number of pinion-shafts 2 3 4 5 6 7 8, carrying pinions entering intothe train of gears 17 to actuate the pointers 1O 12 13, that move over the dials 14 15 16, said dials containing n u mbers-say from 1 t0 10 that may designate units, tens, and hundreds or any other graduationsas, for instance, the dials herein shown are intended to indicate thousands, tens of thousands, and hun- 6o dreds of thousands. Each pinion-shaft has a connected gear, as 17, and each gear, as herein shown, is driven from the pinion at the left of the periphery of the gear.

It will be understood that there may be any desired number of pinion-shafts and gears, that depending on the number of revolutions of the main shaft to be registered.

In accordance with my invention I mount loosely on the first or prime pinion-shaft 2 at the left (see Figs. 2 and 6) an overbalanced weight b, that constitutes the driver for the train. This weight has a pawl c, that engages a tooth or notch d in a disk 01, fast on the pinion-shaft 2, and it will be understood that said pawl will maintain its engagement with said notch while the wheel A is being rotated in the direction indicated in Fig. l, and during each rotation of said wheel the weight has a planetary motion about the pinion-shaft 2. 8c and consequently said pinion-shaft is rotated once to each rotation of the wheel A and its shaft. To prevent the registering-train from being run backwardly and discount the number of revolutions indicated on the dials 10, 12, and .13, I have provided the pinion-shaft 2 with a second disk e,thatis engaged bya pawl c, sustained on a stud 6 held in the plate a, said pawl being normally held in engagement with the disk 6 bya spring 6 so that whenever the wheel Ais rotated opposite the arrow thereon, Fig. 1, the pawl e prevents the rotation of the pinion-shaft 2 and its pinion. The pinion 3 is made short, so that the Weight in its planetary motion may cross the longitudinal axis of the pinion-shaft 3, and consequently to sustain one end of said pinionshaft I have provided a stand 20, (shown by full lines, Fig. 6, and by dotted lines, Fig. 2,) said stand receiving through its lower end a screw 21, that enters the plate a. The pawl c is acted upon byasuitable springf, (see Fig. 1,) connected to the weight at 22. The pinionshafts 6, 7, and S each carry a pointer; but these pointers travel so slowly that their movement cannot be detected by the eye, and consequently to be enabled to tell whether the train of gears are operating when the wheel A is being rotated I have provided the prime pinion-shaft 2 with a pointer 23 that travels over asuitable di'al 24. Suitable glass plates 25 and 26 close the window-openings A and A respectively, and cover the pointers referred to.

Having described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, 1s

1. A registering-wheel comprising a wheel having a cavity and a register contained within said cavity to avoid contact with adjacent parts as the wheel is rotated, said registercomprising a prime pinion-shaft, its pinion, and a train of intermeshing pinions and gears operable therefrom, an over-balanced weight loosely suspended from the prime pinion-shaft and having a rotary motion about the latter, a disk on the prime pinion-shaft and pawl-and-ratchet engagement between the weight and disk for driving the pinion on the prime pinion-shaft when the wheel is rotated in one direction, a second disk connected to the prime pinion shaft, a pawl mounted upon a fixed portion of the register and engaging said disk to prevent turning of the pinion on the prime pinion-shaft when the wheel is rotated in a backward direction.

2. A registering mechanism comprising a wheel, and a register contained within said wheel to avoid contact with adjacent parts as name the wheel is rotated, and having two face- 40 plates, formed with a series of bearings in each of said plates,a prime pinion-shaft,and a series of pinion-shafts journaledin said plates, said shafts carrying a train of intermeshing pinions and gears,an overbalanced weightloosely suspended from the prime pinion-shaft and having a motion about the latter for operating the pinion on the prime pinion-shaft, the pinion-shaft next adjacent the prime pinionshaft being extended only part way between the face-plates to permit the overbalanced weight to swing at the end of a long suspending-arm across the longitudinal axis of the shortened pinion-shaft, and means rendering the overbalanced weight inoperative to turn the pinion on the prime pinion-shaft when the wheel is turned backward.

3. The combination of a wheel having a cavity, plates fitted in the cavity having shaftbearings, pinion-shafts journaled in the bearings and having pinions, a train of gears meshed by the piuions, an overbalanced weight loosely mounted on the prime pinionshaft and having a rotary motion around the latter, a disk fast on the prime pinion-shaft, a spring-pawl on the weight for engaging the disk, the second disk on the prime pinionshaft, a stud secured to a plate, and a springpawl mounted on the stud for engaging the second disk and ,preventing the prime pinionshaft from turning backward.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the -presence of two subscribing witnesses.

WALTER L. DIXON.

Witnesses:

GEO. W. GREGORY, EDITH M. STODDARD. 

